AwardWare

Like Springboard's popular Certificate Maker, Hi Tech's AwardWare is a specialized type of Print Shop package that makes it easy for you to design and print flashy awards, diplomas, licenses and certificates of recognition.

AwardWare offers a library of over 100 awards templates--horizontal, vertical, 5 X 7 and 8 X 10. You can print humorous oversized "checks" or four admission tickets per page. There;s a choice of four ribbon styles, as well as mock plaques, trophies and "keys to the city."

Most of the 32-page manual is filled with AwardWare's 60 templates for awards and licenses, 25 for letterheads and memos, four for ribbons and 10 for miscellaneous awards---99 templates in all, if you don't count the nine types of "QuickAwards." In addition, the program has 20 borders, five fonts, 20 graphics, five seals and four signature types.

These templates are all fairly similar overall--a graphic, a border, some large text here, some small text there...

AwardWare is no speed demon. Even the credits screen takes a full minute for a complete cycle. Expect to wait between four and 15 minutes per printout. The program doesn't seem to print more than 12 lines before stopping and retrieving information from one of the two AwardWare disks. The screen fills with weird garbage while the award is printed, so at least you know something's happening while your printer is inactive.

It's difficult to fit all your text on an award. Templates have different space allotments for text, and the font sizes you choose will affect the number of characters that can be used. Trial and error is about the best way to figure it out. And occasionally the program prints a row of zeroes instead of several-dots-per-inch graphics.

But if you use your imagination and have reasonable patience, AwardWare will prove to be versatile and lots of fun.